Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners had its problems with a stout Illinois Springfield ball club on Saturday afternoon in Rolla. S&T led the whole way, but weren't able to gain any separation until 19-3 run midway through the second half propelled them to a 20-point lead in its 76-63 win.

The Lady Miners (10-5, 6-1 GLVC) got off to another hot start on Saturday knocking down 8 of their first 9 shots, but were unable to shake the Prairie Stars (4-10, 1-5 GLVC) as they knocked down six 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes.  S&T led by six with four minutes left in the stanza, but UIS cut the lead to 29-28 on a three by Megan Bergerud just a minute later. Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) converted on an old-fashioned 3-point play to push the lead back to five, but Carly Goede kept the Prairie Stars close hitting her third trey of the frame to make it 33-31. The Prairie Stars had a chance to tie the game but turned it over with 0:11 left allowing Kyesha Hall (Dodson, La./) to hit a three at the buzzer sending the Lady Miners into the break with a 36-31 advantage.

After its hot start S&T cooled making just 5 of its last 15 from the floor but still shot 54 percent (13-for-24) in the opening half. It was 2-of-3 from three and 8-for-11 at the charity stripe. The Lady Miners held a 21-to-9 edge on the glass. Parks led all scorers with 13 while Hall added nine.
UIS shot 44 percent (12-of-27) from the field and was 6-for-12 from downtown and 1-of-2 at the foul line. Goede led the Prairie Stars with nine points.

S&T had a couple of chances early in the second half to extend its lead but missed two open layups. UIS took advantage scoring five of the first six points to cut the Lady Miner lead to 37-36 three minutes in. S&T pushed the advantage back to five with back-to-back layups by Parks and Cooper. The Prairie Stars continued to hang around and trailed by only four after an old-fashioned 3-point play by Elizabeth Kelly with 10:50 to go.

The Lady Miners then used a 19-3 run over the next six-plus minutes to build their largest lead of the night at 69-49. S&T sandwiched runs of 9-0 and 10-0 around three straight points by UIS. Hall, Parks and Karli Sample (St. Joseph, Mo./Benton) scored 15 of the points during that surge.

The Prairie Stars got as close as 12 points with a minute to go, but the Lady Miners made their free throws down the stretch to win for the ninth time in their last 11 games.

S&T shot 50 percent in the second half and finished the game shooting 52 percent (26-for-50) from the field. It was 3-of-7 from three and 21-for-28 at the foul line (75 percent). Parks finished with her fifth double-double of the season scoring a game-high 23 points and 11 rebounds. Hall finished with 16 points while Sample dropped in seven more. The Lady Miners outrebounded UIS 40-to-19.

The Prairie Stars finished the game shooting 43.4 percent (23-for-53) from the field, 10-of-20 from three and 7-for-10 at the foul line. Goede had 14 points while Bergerud dropped in 10.

S&T travels to St. Louis, Mo., next Thursday to take on the Tritons of Missouri-St. Louis beginning at 5:30 p.m.